Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Religious Hypocracy
Sunday, 25 June 2006
This morning we’re going to talk about being religious. In our gathering here today we’re going to do something really religious. We’re going to baptize two young children. Their parents have decided that they want to do the religious right thing and claim God's promises for their child. So a bit later we’ll go through a fairly simple ceremony of putting water on the children’s heads and saying a few prayers reminding us that as we believe and are recipients of God’s promises to us, then God also extends those promises to our children. All very religious and the families and friends of the parents are here with us to celebrate the occasion. And a very important occasion it is.
But our bible reading this morning comes from what we know as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We started looking at the Sermon on the Mount a couple of weeks ago. In the first section, which is known as the Beatitudes we saw what it is that defines a Christian; last week we saw how the Christian relates to the Law of God. We saw that being good doesn’t make you a Christian but given that you are a Christian through faith in Jesus Christ then you should obey the law of God. Not just in going through the religious motions of outward piety but deep down inside where your attitudes matter and only God really knows what’s in your heart.
This week we’re looking at what Jesus has to say about living as a Christian in the world. As Christians we are never meant to run away and practise our Christian lives in isolation from the world. We are to live in the market place not the monastery. We are to be in the world but not of the world. Earlier in the sermon Jesus said, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” But now he’s saying 1“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” At first glance these two statements appear to be contradictory but when we look at the issues Jesus was addressing in the two statements we see that there are two different errors that people are prone to fall into.
It has been said that Christian truth is like a narrow plank across a chasm. You can fall off either side. On the one hand Jesus is telling us that we should life good lives, in obedience to God's law so that when people see the things that we do because we are Christians they will praise our Father in heaven.
This is quite a challenge isn’t it. How do we live in such a way that people, seeing our lives, praise God? Maybe what’s even more of a challenge is one step further back. Do we even think about living our lives in such a way that people praise God? That’s one side of the plank you can fall off. You are so like everyone else around you that no-one even knows that you are a Christian. If being a Christian was against the law there wouldn’t even be a hint of suspicion let alone enough evidence to convict you.
The other side of the plank is being such an ostentatious Christian that you’re not concerned with people giving praise to God but rather you want people to praise you for your piety. Living your religious life out there, in people’s faces. “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.” You can either have the immediate acclaim of other people or you can have the reward from God in heaven. If you go after the former you’ll miss out on the latter.
Jesus gives as examples the three traditional areas of religious devotion, almsgiving, prayer and fasting. He speaks about them in such a way that he obviously assumes that his audience will be doing them, after all they are believers, but he goes on to show how to get it right.
First, almsgiving. Giving to the poor and needy. There are plenty of places in the Bible where we are told to do just that. To generously share the good things God has given us with those less fortunate. Of course we are to do it. It’s part of our being obedient to God. But the question is, how do we do it.
Jesus warns about the people he calls hypocrites. The word hypocrite originally meant a professional orator or actor. It’s all put on; not what you really believe. The hypocrites of Jesus time really went over the top. Can you picture it. Your sitting quietly in church, maybe praying or reading the bible or listening to the minister explain the meaning of a bible passage. Like we’re doing now in fact. When suddenly in marches a couple of trumpeters, all done up in uniform and playing a fanfare, followed by a crier calling out, “Make way, make way, here comes Joe Bloggs (I hope there’s no-one of that name here today.) Joe Bloggs is about to give his offering to the church.” Following this little procession comes Joe Bloggs, all dressed up in his two thousand dollar Armani suit and his Gucci loafers, he marches up to the front of the church, and one of his flunkies hands him a cheque book and a gold pen and he ostentatiously writes out a cheque for a large sum which he waves around so people can see how many zeroes there are before the decimal point, then places it in the collection plate. He then turns and beams at the minister, beams at the people and takes his seat in the special seat reserved for important people and all the people think he’s wonderful. And Jesus says that’s all the reward he’s going to get.
This saying of Jesus is where our phrase blowing your own trumpet comes from. Years ago a minister friend of mine was entertaining one of the bishops to tea. At the end of the meal one of the minister’s children asked the bishop if he was going to play the trumpet for them. When the bishop looked perplexed the child said, “But Daddy says you’re always blowing your own trumpet.” OOPS.
Jesus offers a better way, “when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”
Late last year we announced that Tim was entering Moore College for ministry training and that we should financially support him by employing him as our Trainee Minister and this would cost us some thousands of dollars above our normal budget. By the end of that day most of the money had been promised. The people who are giving the money know who they are, I know who some of them are, God knows who they all are, but nobody else knows who they are.
Some years ago the a former Archbishop of Sydney launched Vision for Growth, an appeal to enable churches to be established in the growing new suburbs of Sydney. A well known Sydney businessman launched the appeal with a donation of $1million on condition that no one knew who had given it. In a church I was in once one guy’s business went bottom up. A well to do parishioner approached me and asked me to find out how much the guy’s mortgage on his home was and he would pay it each month until he was back on his feet but the guy wasn’t to know who was doing it.
The next example is prayer. Jesus gives two examples. The first is people who ostentatiously give prayer out in public so everyone can see how wonderfully pious they are. Again Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” Instead Jesus tells us to pray in private where only God sees what we are doing.
Now this is not an injunction against public prayer. There are occasions, such as when we meet together like this, that prayers are offered in the presence of and on behalf of those gathered. Again it is aimed that those who would try to big note themselves.
Of course this warning can be extrapolated against any form of big- noting, be it preaching, praying, music, leadership. We are to offer our God given gifts in humble service for God’s glory and the benefit of others, if we are after the praise of men, then the praise of men is all we’ll get. It feels great at the time, it may even put money in the bank, but it doesn’t last into eternity.
The second example of the wrong way to pray is what Jesus calls “babbling like pagans.” This doesn’t mean praying in foreign languages but repeating fine sounding phrases over and over again, giving long winded prayers, heaping up superlatives, prayers that are all verbiage and no meaning. Possibly the ultimate form of this is the Buddhist prayer wheel, where you write your prayer on a strip of paper, place it in the prayer wheel and the wind blows it round and round and every time it goes around the prayer has been repeated.
Jesus tells us that God already knows what we need and what we want and gives us that beautiful prayer we know as the lord’s Prayer. A simple prayer. A personal intimate address, “Our Father” then three petitions about God and his glory and three petitions about ourselves and our needs. No vain repetitions, no babbling on, succinct, pointed, practical.
Of course it is possible to use the Lord’s Prayer hypocritically or mechanically or both, but Jesus gave it as a model of prayer rather than as a prayer to be recited. However, used wisely it is such a great prayer that if we really mean it, it is hard to surpass it. Jesus emphasizes the fact that our prayers must be real by pointing out that we cannot expect forgiveness of our sins by God if we don’t forgive others who have sinned against us.
The third area of religiosity that Jesus highlights is fasting. Now fasting is not something that is not currently in vogue and I don’t want to go into the historical reasons for that. But don’t you know some Christians who act as though it’s a sin to enjoy life. How dare your enjoy yourself. You’re a Christian. The attitude has entered into our culture as wowserism. Good people don’t have fun. Jesus is telling us, yes we are to apply ourselves to the exercise of our religion, we are to abstain from some pleasures, we are to take life seriously, but we are to do it with a glad heart, rejoicing in our relationship with God and Jesus. We don’t need alcoholic spirits to lift our spirits. We have the Holy Spirit. We are to enjoy the blessings of this life but not be obsessed with them. But we’ll talk more about that next week.
Let’s say the Lord’s prayer together.